Postgame Quotes: LA dominant in 3-0 California Clasico win

Locker room reaction from LA's impressive 3-0 victory over San Jose

September 1, 2013

LA Galaxy Communications

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA

On tonight’s match:

“I think our team played well tonight. San Jose played real hard in the first half, came out hard. The first goal was very important. I think they threw a lot into the game in the first half. You can see in the second half they lost their legs a little bit. Our team played well. It was a game winner. As the game went on, our passing improved. I thought we scored some good goals. Overall, a good performance. A good team effort.”

On the importance of the game:

“Every game is important. What can I tell you? The next game is important. I’m asked that question game every week. They are all very important. We want to win every time we step onto the field. They are all important at this point in the season.”

On the play of the Earthquakes:

“Mike Stephens made a mistake at the end of the game, which probably gave them their best chance. They had a couple shots from distance throughout the game. There may have been a corner kick in the second half, as well. They were dangerous. Overall, our entire group played very well. Our backline was fantastic. Jaime has a good presence in the goal, as well.”

On the play of Jaime Penedo:

“He’s an experienced goalkeeper. When called on, he’s come up for us in the last three or four games. He’s certainly going to get tested a little bit more. I think he’s played very well. He’s given up two goals in four games. Jaime’s obviously doing well.”

LA GALAXY FORWARD ROBBIE KEANE

On the win:

“It was a good performance. From the start it didn’t look like they would cause us any problem. A goal came on a typical play from us, a counterattack, and we were sharp on the break, and once you get the first goal it kind of opened from there.”

On his second goal:

“It was a good ball from Gyasi, good header from Sean. That ultimately put the game away.”

On the Galaxy’s four-game winning streak in all competitions:

“I think we’re certainly starting [to get it going] if you look at the last few games. I think in this league it’s important that you get back-to-back wins, it’s amazing how it pushes you right up there and keeps you in contention. Certainly in the last month or so it’s important that we’ve done that. Big test for the players now that are going to be here [to face Colorado on Sept. 7] because the international players are going away so it’s good opportunity for the younger lads to stake a claim, keep it going and hopefully get points on the board for us.”

On scoring seven goals in the last five games:

“It’s nice to score, it’s always nice to score. I know I was out for a few weeks but I keep saying I don’t like being injured, it’s frustrating, so it’s just nice to be back playing and scoring the goals and helping the team progress and get the points on the board.”

LA GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN

On beating San Jose 3-0 at home:

“We’re playing well. The team is playing well and full of confidence. I think we are defending really well, I don’t think Jaime had a whole lot to do. We are attacking well, we’re moving the ball well, everything’s clicking, and I think we felt that when we had our whole team together that this was possible so we’re real happy how things are going and want to keep making a push and catch Salt Lake.”

On protecting a lead against San Jose:

“We talked about it at halftime a lot. We’re up 2-0 but with this team anything can happen. We wanted to make sure we played a full 90 minutes and I think we’ve started to build that over the last few weeks. It’s not always perfect, but I think we are getting better and better. And when we do that, and put together a complete game, we feel like we are going to win a lot of games.”

On scoring five goals in the last five games with the Galaxy:

“I feel real good about how I’m playing. I’m just enjoying it a lot, I’m really happy out there. The energy seems to come to me really easy right now and I think when I’m energetic I create a lot of chances. It doesn’t mean I’m always going to score, but if I’m energetic I think I’m always going to be effective and that’s what I’m trying to do right now.”

LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER JAIME PENEDO

Translated from Spanish

On what it means to beat San Jose:

“I know it’s the California Clasico and it was important to win, as it was a six-point game, so it was a blessing and we must keep playing like this because teams are very close (to each other) in the table.”

On recording a third consecutive shutout, and his first half save on Wondolowski:

“I feel good. I feel good, but let’s recognized that my teammates and the defense played ran the entire 95 minutes. I’ve been fortunate to be in a position to influence the scoreboard, which is the most important thing.”

On Bruce Arena’s postgame comments:

“Well, we have a team that offensive has a lot of talent. There’s a lot of quality up front. Winning also gives everyone a lot of confidence, and that helps. What’s helped me (adjust so quickly) is that I have two central defenders that speak Spanish and benefitted everyone a lot. A lot of credit goes to the defenders, they are the once that are running and cover a lot of space.”

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES HEAD COACH MARK WATSON

On what he would have liked to have seen out of his team tonight:
“I wanted us to have a good defensive performance and prevent goals from going in. We knew that they’re a very dangerous team, when they’re on form they’re the best team in the league and if we gave them time and space they were going to hurt us. I thought we were pretty good up until the first goal. I thought our shape was good, we worked hard, we had a bunch of chances and the really disheartening thing is that one of the main focuses in the short couple days that we had to prepare for them we talked about counter attacks and ultimately that was the first goal.”

On whether or not he thought his players gave a fighting performance:

“Yeah I thought our players worked hard and fought all night. That was never in question.”

On if there were any positives to take from tonight’s performance:

“Yeah, I mean we’re going to have to look at the mistakes we made and learn from them. Against a team like that if you’re defending isn’t good, if you give Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane time and space to run at you, you’re in big trouble. So we’ll look at stuff, dust ourselves off, we’ll work hard in training, get prepared for the next game but we’ll spend a couple of days learning from our mistakes.”

On Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane:

“They’re two special players and they seem to have a pretty good understanding, that was one of our main focuses all week in terms of not letting them do what they want to do. They want to get the ball in the hole and then go from there, they run off shoulders. They’re two fantastic players so we knew we were going to have to be on our best to stop them tonight.”

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI

On how important it would have been to win this game:
“Every game is important now. I think right now we have to really concentrate on our home games, we only have four left and we have to win those. And we have one next week, Philly at home, and if we win that it puts us back in the thick of it and hopefully try to go from there.”

On his evaluation on tonight’s performance:
“Rollercoaster. I thought we had some ups, some downs, just wasn’t sharp enough. LA is a great team, if you give them chances, they have great players, they finish it. They’re class and we just weren’t quite sharp enough to get the job done.”

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES FORWARD ALAN GORDON

On playing three games in eight days and returning home to San Jose:
“I think we need that. We had three tough away games, didn’t get the results that we wanted but there’s no time to put our heads down. We got to get together and put a good performance and win our home games.”

On what it will take to make the playoffs:
“Well we have to start by winning all our home games. I mean that’s a must. Aside from that we have to try to pick up a few road points so we got to do a better job on the road. This was a really good team and they’ve always been good so it’s tough but these things happen. We have to pick ourselves up, dust off and get back to work.

On how playing in the new formation against the Galaxy went tonight:

“It was going alright. I think our shape was good. Landon is a great counterattack player; him and Robbie are very, very dangerous. We’re not the only team that’s happened to all year so they caught us sleeping and they punished us and they do that to teams all around the league so it happened to us. I thought for the most part we were OK but they’re very dangerous and they took their chances well.”